B2B SaaS Inbound Marketing
Business-to-business software-as-a-service (B2B SaaS) enables companies and startups to access the required enterprise software without increasing upfront and recurring costs. Businesses across sectors opt for B2B SaaS applications to leverage benefits like customization, scalability, security, and upgrades.
However, the involvement of multiple decision-makers makes B2B SaaS sales cycles longer than the B2C SaaS sales cycles. While strategizing how to market SaaS software, B2B SaaS companies focus extensively on shortening the sales cycles. In addition to addressing buyer interests and concerns, they personalize communication and maintain regular follow-ups.
Inbound marketing methodology helps them market and sell B2B SaaS applications using various digital marketing channels. At the same time, marketing automation tools help them deliver personalized content and messages to B2B leads at different stages in the buyer’s journey. However, organizations generate, nurture, and convert leads using various B2B SaaS inbound marketing strategies.
7 Inbound Marketing Tactics and Techniques in B2B SaaS Marketing
1. Buying Experience Optimization
The buying decisions of B2B customers are primarily driven by customer experience. Managers consider and improve customer experiences by creating buyer personas. Buyer personas help managers identify and understand ideal corporate customers based on their needs, objectives, motivations, and pain points.
At the same time, marketers can use data-driven buyer personas to understand buyer behavior based on his current stage – awareness, consideration, decision, retention, and advocacy – in the B2B buying journey. The understanding helps them personalize and boost buying experiences using paid and organic inbound marketing channels and tactics.
2. Website Optimization
No B2B SaaS company can generate, engage, and convert leads without optimizing its website’s user experience (UX). In addition to reducing the website’s loading speed to less than 2 seconds, they must ensure that customers can access the website seamlessly using computers and mobile devices. At the same time, strategists need to ensure that the website is informative, intuitive, and aesthetic.
In addition, they must tailor the website content according to the B2B buyer persona. The content will make the website effective in addressing leads’ needs, expectations, and pain points. Also, decision-makers should encourage website visitors to subscribe to whitepapers and newsletters. However, they should audit and update website content regularly by monitoring key B2B SaaS metrics.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing helps B2B SaaS companies engage and influence leads at various stages in the buying journey. Companies shape the purchase decisions of leads by delivering relevant and valuable content throughout the buying journey. Companies make B2B SaaS inbound marketing successful by creating, distributing, and optimizing content in various forms – blog posts, pillar pages, whitepapers, user guides, videos, podcasts, infographics, case studies, eBooks, reports, and templates.
Strategists make content marketing campaigns successful by integrating top, middle-, and bottom-of-funnel content. At the same time, they gain credibility and trust by complementing the brand-generated content with customer-generated content like reviews and testimonials. They further use the multiformat content as a tool to drive inbound marketing campaigns like search engine optimization (SEO) and social media promotion.
4. Blogs and Guest Blogs
As highlighted by several studies, internet users consider blogs as one of the most trustworthy sources of online information. Most decision-makers read blogs to understand and compare SaaS solutions. In addition to educating and engaging the B2B leads, blogs help B2B SaaS companies establish thought leadership. Blogs create opportunities for them to highlight the features and advantages of a SaaS application.
Brands address the needs, objectives, and concerns of the target audience by publishing informative blogs. Also, they accelerate lead generation by publishing informative and insightful blogs regularly. At the same time, B2B SaaS companies enhance customer reach and build authority by publishing guest blogs on relevant websites. Along with improving brand awareness and visibility, guest blogging helps B2B SaaS brands attract and convert leads by improving brand reputation and credibility.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO helps companies increase website traffic and generate leads by improving the SaaS website’s search engine visibility and performance. Strategists divert searchers to the SaaS website regularly by implementing on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tactics. Technical SEO tactics enable search engines to crawl, understand, and index web pages seamlessly by improving the website’s technical aspects and resolving technical issues.
At the same time, on-page or onsite SEO tactics boost the website’s search performance by optimizing its structure, content, and other elements. Off-page or offsite SEO tactics enhance the website’s online reputation by building authority and credibility. B2B SaaS companies implement SEO as a long-term inbound marketing strategy. They further increase the website’s search engine visibility by tracking and measuring important SEO metrics.
6. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
Unlike organic inbound marketing tactics, PPC advertising helps B2B SaaS companies accelerate brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales conversions. Also, the measurable nature of PPC ads makes it easier for companies to get desired results by making real-time changes. While considering paid advertising, B2B SaaS companies leverage PPC advertising options from leading search engines and popular social networks.
Likewise, they target a specific segment of customers by tailoring PPC ads based on their demographics, behavior, and interests. At the same time, retargeting options enable them to SaaS promote products or services showing ads to leads who have visited the website previously. Retargeted ads influence their purchase decisions by reminding them about the product/service/brand at the consideration and decision stages in the B2B buying journey.
7. Email Marketing
As a tried-and-trusted inbound marketing strategy, email marketing helps B2B SaaS companies generate revenue consistently. In addition to driving lead generation, nurturing, and conversion, well-crafted email marketing strategies help B2B SaaS companies reduce subscriber churn. Companies engage and influence B2B leads across the buying journey by sending personalized email messages. Also, marketing automation tools help them achieve the highest engagement by sending emails to B2B leads at the right time and date.
However, marketers increase email open rates by adopting several best practices. For instance, they conduct A/B testing to ensure that the email header and subject line look compelling. In addition to personalizing the email, they tailor its content and messaging according to the needs of each B2B lead. At the same time, they persuade recipients to take the desired action by including a compelling and powerful call-to-action (CTA).
Conclusion
While discussing B2B SaaS inbound marketing methodology, we must remember that leading brands still use outbound marketing strategies successfully. B2B SaaS outbound marketing tactics accelerate the sales cycles by focusing on specific buyer profiles. Hence, companies integrate B2B inbound and outbound marketing tactics based on important factors like market size, deal size, brand alignment, and marketing budget.
How to Market SaaS Software?
As a popular cloud software delivery model, Software as a Service (SaaS) enables users to access the desired tech tools over the Internet using a web browser. End-users can access the SaaS software anytime and anywhere using computers or mobile devices. On-demand accessibility is one of the factors driving the steady growth of the worldwide SaaS market.
The steady growth creates opportunities for companies to accomplish profitable growth by providing their SaaS software to companies and startups across regions. However, companies can grow the subscriber base only by overcoming key challenges in SaaS software marketing – covering free users into paid users, beating competitors, and retaining subscribers.
At the same time, the involvement of multiple decision-makers makes it challenging for companies to accelerate the long B2B sales cycles. Leading SaaS companies overcome these challenges using various marketing channels and tactics. We are discussing the tried and tested strategies you should consider while deciding how to market SaaS software.
10 SaaS Software Marketing Strategies to Boost Subscriber Acquisition and Retention
1. Content Marketing
SaaS content marketing helps companies address potential customers’ interests, pain points, and expectations at various phases in the buyer’s journey. SaaS Companies attract regular traffic to their websites by optimizing the content for search engines. At the same time, insightful content helps them impress potential customers by establishing authority and credibility. However, the SaaS marketing strategy must focus on the creation, distribution, and optimization of various content—landing pages, blogs, videos, podcasts, webinars, and newsletters.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO helps companies increase website traffic and generate leads organically by improving websites’ search engine visibility and ranking. However, companies must enhance SaaS software visibility by combining three important aspects of SEO – on-page, off-page, and technical. On-page SEO tactics focus on optimizing the website’s structure, content, and other elements for search engines. Off-page SEO tactics increase the website’s reputation and authority by earning high-quality links from reputable websites. At the same time, technical SEO tactics ensure seamless crawling and indexing of the website by optimizing technical aspects and mitigating technical issues.
3. Email Marketing
SaaS software companies acquire and retain subscribers by running email marketing campaigns. They develop and foster relationships with subscribers by sending various forms of emails – welcome, promotional, product update, reactivation, and onboarding. Brands make SaaS email marketing campaigns successful using automation tools. For instance, they decide the best subject line and call-to-action (CTA) using A/B testing tools. Likewise, they use AI-powered automation tools to send personalized emails to existing and potential subscribers at the right time.
4. Social Media Marketing
While discovering SaaS software, many potential subscribers use social media instead of search engines. Hence, companies promote their SaaS products aggressively on popular social networking platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). In addition to driving lead generation, social networks help SaaS companies foster subscriber relationships by sharing informative content, success stories, and customer testimonials. However, the SaaS social media marketing strategy must be tailored for each targeted platform.
5. PPC Advertising
The pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement options provided by search engines and social networks boost the SaaS software’s online visibility in a short amount of time. Brands target and engage relevant audiences by customizing PPC ads based on demographics, subscriber behavior, and keywords. At the same time, remarketing and retargeting ads create opportunities for them to showcase SaaS software to potential subscribers after they leave websites or mobile apps. However, the PPC advertising strategy for SaaS software must focus on optimizing ad copies, CTAs, keywords, and landing pages.
6. Collaborative Marketing
Collaboration is currently one of the hottest trends in SaaS software marketing. Leading brands boost subscriber acquisition by collaborating with brands offering complimentary SaaS products. For instance, a SaaS company offering accounting software collaborates with companies that offer similar financial solutions. However, the outcome of collaborative marketing or co-marketing campaigns depends on important factors like joint promotion, advertising cost splitting, and promotional discount opportunities.
7. Referral Marketing
While comparing and selecting SaaS software, subscribers consider the experiences and reviews of existing customers. SaaS software companies leverage the trends by incentivizing existing customers to bring referrals. In addition to reducing subscriber acquisition costs, this SaaS software marketing strategy increases customer lifetime values. SaaS companies incentivize existing customers in various forms – free upgrades, discounts, and premium feature access. Also, they determine incentives by considering the demographic information of the new B2B customer.
8. Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) strategies help SaaS companies generate leads and drive sales by personalizing the buying experience of B2B clients. Marketing and sales teams collaborate to nurture potential subscribers throughout the sales cycle. SaaS software companies adopt ABM to prioritize B2B leads and nurture them by sending personalized content and messages. Personalized communication helps companies increase conversion rates by prioritizing high-value customers and shortening the sales cycle. However, the marketing strategy requires SaaS companies to influence B2B customers by delivering personalized content and message across digital marketing channels.
9. User-Generated Content Marketing
While comparing SaaS software, potential subscribers trust customer-generated content more than brand-generated content. In addition to SaaS content marketing campaigns, SaaS software companies influence purchase decisions by leveraging user-generated content. The strategy focuses on encouraging and incentivizing existing subscribers to post reviews and share testimonials. The reviews posted on reputable websites and online forums help them increase brand visibility and credibility. At the same time, companies gain trust by embedding customer testimonials in the home and product pages of the SaaS software website.
10. Influencer Marketing
Like direct-to-consumer companies, SaaS companies promote their software through influencers. However, they plan and implement influencer marketing strategies in a distinct way. Leading SaaS software companies initiate the campaign by publishing blog posts and becoming guest bloggers. They promote internal and external content by engaging the right influencer. The marketing strategy makes them incentivize influencers in various forms. The influencer marketing strategy helps them promote their content and expand their subscriber base in a short amount of time.
Conclusion
While discussing how to market your SaaS, you must focus on knowing the ideal customer and understanding competitors. Your marketing strategy must guide and influence potential customers at various stages or phases in the buyer’s journey. Hence, it would be best if you drove their buying decisions by creating data-driven buyer personas. At the same time, you must understand competitors by monitoring the marketing strategies implemented by them and adopting their successful SaaS marketing strategies.
B2B Lead Generation Strategies for 2024
Saurav, One of my good friends, who has recently set up his own startup, called me last Friday evening and asked me “Hey, I have started working on my 2024 marketing plan. We have a robust email marketing plan ready. Can you quickly tell me what are the other ways to generate B2B leads”. My answer to him was “It Depends. It all starts with your products, target customers, what are the problems they are facing, what kind of problems are solved by your products, and also, the price points of your products. Based on that you will need to create multiple touchpoints for your target customers to influence their purchase decisions and create your B2B lead generation strategies”.
SaaS Content Marketing
As a long-term digital marketing strategy, content marketing helps brands build trust and relationships with existing and potential customers by providing high-quality content. Both B2B and B2C companies these days create brand awareness, establish authority, and boost sales conversions by creating, distributing, and promoting both textual and visual content.
Like other B2B and B2C companies, Software as a Service (SaaS) companies run content marketing campaigns to build concrete long-term relationships with potential customers. They generate leads, educate prospects, establish thought authority, create brand awareness, and drive the sales process through regular content creation and distribution.
However, SaaS content marketing trends change at regular intervals. While planning SaaS content marketing strategies, you must adopt several existing and emerging trends. Also, you can beat competitors in the highly competitive SaaS industry by detecting and adopting emerging trends. We are making it easier for you to boost SaaS content marketing efforts by discussing some of these important trends.
11 Existing and Emerging Trends that Will Shape SaaS Content Marketing in the Future
Video Marketing
A market research study conducted by BrightCove suggests that 70% of executives watch related videos while making purchase decisions. Additionally, 93% of executives opt for companies that make video content available readily for consumption.
Hence, SaaS companies will engage the target audience by publishing explainer videos, product demos, and webinars regularly. While creating videos, they will focus on explaining complex SaaS products in a simple way. Also, they will increase the ROI by optimizing videos for various platforms and devices.
Interactive Content
SaaS companies can no longer engage the target audience by publishing only static content. They have to complement the static content with interactive content like quizzes, polls, and assessments. While hosting webinars, they will they will engage the audience by including Q&A sessions.
In addition to engaging the audience and increasing brand awareness, the interactive content will help them gather customer feedback. The feedback and user engagement data will help them create and publish content that aligns with the target audience in various stages of their buying journey.
Cornerstone Content
Google’s E-E-A-T quality rater guidelines make it essential for SaaS companies to showcase expertise and establish authoritativeness. SaaS companies will diver organic search traffic to their websites by publishing cornerstone content. In addition to making the website rank for highly competitive keywords, the cornerstone content will prevent executives from visiting competitor websites.
While making a SaaS content marketing strategy, marketers will focus on the creation of long-form content that provides elaborate information and actionable insights. They will optimize the content for search engines by embedding internal links to other pages on the websites. Furthermore, they will maintain and update the cornerstone content regularly to keep them evergreen.
Search Engine Optimization
In addition to publishing and maintaining cornerstone content, SaaS companies complement content marketing with search engine optimization (SEO). They will boost their SaaS websites’ search engine visibility and ranking by optimizing content for both text and voice search queries.
Their SEO strategy will focus on including keywords that address pain points, building incoming links, utilizing internal link structures, and considering customer intent. At the same time, the strategy will optimize the content for voice search queries by using conversational language and answering common questions.
User-Generated Content
As highlighted by several reasons, executives trust user-generated content more than brand-generated content while making purchase decisions. Hence, SaaS content marketing strategies will focus on building trust and credibility by leveraging user-generated content.
SaaS customers will encourage and incentivize customers to review and mention their products or services. Also, they will impress potential customers by including customer testimonials in case studies, reviews, and social media posts. They will boost content marketing campaigns by unifying brand and user-generated content seamlessly.
Content Repurposing
Executives these days consume digital content in multiple ways. Some of them prefer listening to podcasts or watching videos, while others still read articles and blogs. Hence, SaaS content marketing strategies will focus on repurposing content.
SaaS companies will deploy multifunctional content creators to deliver the same content in textual, audio, and video formats. In addition to curtailing content marketing costs, the repurposing will enable them to share and promote content across communication and marketing channels.
AI-Generated Content
AI-powered tools have transformed all SaaS marketing strategies, including content marketing. Most SaaS companies leverage AI tools to boost marketing activities like buyer persona creation, competitor research, and graph creation. Also, content creators use AI-powered tools to edit and proofread copies.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Baard enable them to produce machine-generated content. SaaS companies will invest in premium AI-powered tools to curtail content generation time and cost. However, they will explore ways to produce high-quality textual and visual content by overcoming the shortcomings of AI content creation tools.
Hence, SaaS companies will use intelligence technologies to create the first draft of the content. Human content creators have to work on AI-generated content to ensure that website performance and SEO campaigns are not impacted adversely.
Marketing Content Funnel
While buying a SaaS product or service, B2B customers go through a process consisting of several stages – awareness, interest, consideration, and decision. In addition to tracking the prospect’s position in the buyer’s journey, SaaS content marketing strategies focus on meeting his needs across touch points.
Hence, content creators will produce content for each stage in the buyer’s journey. They will ensure that the content moves the prospect through the sales journey by addressing his needs and pain points. SaaS companies will implement multiple marketing content funnels to engage potential customers and convert them into buyers.
Lead Nurturing Content
SaaS companies these days use lead nurturing techniques to sustain engaging relationships with existing and potential customers. They use buyer personas to understand and address the needs, challenges, and goals of the targeted buyers.
Also, they engage and nurture leads by delivering targeted and personalized content according to their current position in the buying journey. Hence, content creators will focus extensively on producing lead-nurturing content that moves the prospect through the sales funnel.
While producing lead-nurturing content, creators have to prioritize content quality over content quantity. Also, they will combine information and insights to produce content that is comprehensive, authentic, and practical.
Data-Driven Insights
Most SaaS companies these days target high-value customers by running account-based marketing campaigns. Account-based marketing emphasizes engaging and influencing each customer account by sending personalized and relevant content and messaging.
SaaS companies leverage data analytics to create and deliver personalized content. Data analytics solutions help marketers understand the behavior, needs, preferences, and pain points of each targeted account. Also, the insights shared by the software help content creators personalize content and messaging that resonates with high-value accounts.
Multiple KPIs
The customer-centric nature of SaaS content marketing has made it KPI-driven. SaaS companies will use multiple KPIs to measure the effectiveness of content in increasing demo bookings and retaining subscribers. Hence, decision-makers will use the number of leads generated and conversion rate while measuring SaaS content performance.
Additionally, they will evaluate content performance using parameters like inbound links, shares, comments, and interactions. SaaS content creators and marketers will keep in mind these KPIs to understand what is working and what is not.
Conclusion
As a tried-and-trusted digital marketing strategy, content marketing helps your SaaS company foster long-term relationships with existing and potential customers. But you can make the SaaS content marketing strategy only by detecting and adopting emerging trends early. Additionally, you must keep the SaaS content marketing strategy flexible enough to implement existing and emerging trends without any delay.
Inside Sales Software for Your Business
The selling strategies or sales methods used by enterprises can be broadly divided into two categories – inside sales and outside sales. Salespeople engaged in outside sales sell products or services by meeting potential customers in person. They meet customers by visiting their offices or at industry events like conferences and trade shows.
The salespeople engaged in inside sales sell products or services to customers remotely in an office environment. They connect and communicate with potential customers using popular communication channels like phone, emails, social media, text messaging, live chat, and video chat.
They need robust tech tools to streamline and optimize the inside sales process. Your company or startup can provide the necessary digital tools to the inside sales team by implementing inside sales software. Inside sales solutions simplify lead generation, nurturing, and conversion activities through automation.
Also, they help insider sales representatives close more deals by sharing data-driven insights. Your organization can streamline the inside sales process by implementing several special-purpose software applications. We are making it easier for you to automate the process by evaluating some of the best inside sales software for your business.
Overview of 11 of the Best Inside Sales Software for Your Business
LinkedIn Sales Solutions
The business-focused social networking platform provides two premium inside sales tools – Navigator and Insights. Sales Navigator helps users find prospects based on their buying intent, prioritize accounts based on real-time data, and strengthen customer relationships using advocates.
Salespeople can find and shortlist potential customers using a slew of filters. The software sends automated notifications each time a customer visits a business profile or engages with content. At the same time, Sales Insights makes it easier for users to nurture leads and close deals by sharing actionable insights and data.
Salespeople can use the software to divide leads into relevant segments and measure sales opportunities. Your company can access these popular inside sales solutions by subscribing to the Core, Advanced, or Advanced Plus pricing plan.
HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot Sales Hub provides inside sales representatives with tools for deepening customer relationships and closing more deals. Salespeople can use sales engagement tools to prospects through contextual conversation.
Also, they can use the software to manage leads, monitor upcoming sales activities, track emails opened by prospects, and prioritize sales calls. Sales Hub makes it easier for users to schedule meetings, access the required resources, create deal pipelines, and send sales quotes.
In addition, the software uses AI algorithms to facilitate the seamless movement of leads across the sales process. You can boost the software’s functionality by integrating it with the free CRM software provided by HubSpot. At present, HubSpot allows you to bundle the required inside sales solutions by subscribing to the Starter, Professional, or Enterprise pricing plan.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce has developed Sales Cloud as AI-powered CRM software for sales teams. The cloud-based CRM system boosts the efficiency of inside sales representatives by providing sales automation tools. In addition to centralizing customer data, these tools automate complex sales processes and workflows.
Salespeople can access these tools to streamline important activities like lead management, opportunity management, forecast management, and pipeline management. Also, these tools help them initiate contextual conversations with prospects by capturing emails, events, and similar engagement activities.
The software uses AI to help salespeople prioritize accounts based on their profile information. The dashboard provided by the software helps managers provide sales representatives with the information required to close deals faster. Your company currently has the option to choose from three editions of Sales Cloud – Starter, Professional, and Enterprise.
Close CRM
Close CRM helps your inside sales team reach more prospects by automating the sales workflow. Your team can use the software to create prospect lists and prioritize leads based on real-time data. At the same time, they can initiate customer relationships effortlessly using the calling, emailing, SMS, and video features provided by the CRM system.
The software allows users to trigger sales workflows either manually or automatically. At the same time, the built-in call assistant enables representatives to focus only on customers by producing transcripts accurately and automatically. You can integrate Close CRM with existing sales tools. Your organization can leverage the CRM system by subscribing to the Startup, Professional, or Enterprise pricing plan.
Calendly
Calendly is a premium schedule automation tool. It helps inside sales representatives speed up sales cycles and close more deals by scheduling more meetings. Representatives can use Calendly to connect with prospects before competitors. Also, the software keeps prospects engaged between meetings by enabling salespeople to send automated emails and text reminders.
Calendly uses advanced data analytics to detect and recommend popular meeting trends to users. Also, salespeople can allow recipients to decide on the meeting time by embedding relevant links in the email. The free edition of the software supports a single event type with multiple meetings. You have to subscribe to the Standard, Teams, or Enterprise pricing plan to get multiple event types support.
Insightly
The CRM software streamlines inside sales process by providing a slew of tools. Inside sales teams can use Insightly to capture information about prospects, prioritize leads using relevant criteria, and track the real-time status of each deal. At the same time, Insightly Marketing helps them build sales pipelines and nurture leads through automation.
The tool makes it easier for users to share the right content with leads by providing customizable email templates and landing page designers. Insightly Sales boosts customer experiences by helping the support team close tickets quickly. Insightly allows you to subscribe to the CRM software, marketing automation tools, and help desk solutions individually.
Pipedrive
This cloud-based CRM system focuses extensively on meeting the needs of inside sales representatives. Your team can organize the sales process using Pipedrive as a customizable CRM. Also, they can integrate the software seamlessly with many tools and services. Your team can use the software to create visual pipelines and customize them by adding custom stages and fields.
At the same time, Pipedrive facilitates personalized communication by allowing users to segment and categorize leads. The reminders sent by the platform help sales teams follow up with each lead while accessing a detailed history of calls, emails, and meetings. Your company can access Pipedrive by choosing from five pricing plans – Essential, Advanced, Professional, Power, and Enterprise.
Copper
As a CRM system, Copper helps your inside sales team store customer relationship data in a centralized location. Copper further boosts customer interaction through the automation of routine tasks and important notifications. The marketing automation tool provided by Copper facilitates personalized customer interaction.
Also, sales representatives can track the real-time status of deals by creating pipelines. The software makes it easier for them to monitor inside sales activities by supporting custom report generation. Your company can access the required features and tools by subscribing to the Basic, Professional, or Business edition of Copper.
ZoomInfo Sales OS
ZoomInfo boosts the productivity of inside sales teams by providing a solution called Sales OS. It helps sales representatives find ready-to-buy companies by featuring sales prospecting software. The software scores lead based on buying signals and data-driven insights.
The conversation intelligence shared by Sales OS tracks key accounts and shares insights by analyzing communication across channels. At the same time, the sales team can automate manual activities by integrating the software with existing tech tools and solutions. Your company can gather pricing information by filling up a form.
Apollo.io
This AI-powered software platform helps inside sales representatives close more deals by providing four solutions – Enrich, Prospect, Engage, and Close. In addition to synchronizing data automatically to the CRM software, Enrich helps users ensure data accuracy and completeness. Prospect identifies high-quality prospects using lead-scoring techniques.
Also, it provides accurate and up-to-date information to the sales representatives. Engage helps them connect with prospects by making phone calls, sending emails, or scheduling meetings. The AI=powered insights shared by Close help users close more deals. Your company can access Apollo.io by subscribing to the Free, Basic, Professional, or Organization pricing plans.
Klenty
This agile sales engagement platform enables sales representatives to customize sales activities according to a prospect’s buying journey. They can use Klenty to identify cold, warm, and hot prospects. Also, the software helps them focus on meeting-ready accounts. Sales teams can use the platform to engage prospects using multiple channels – telephone, emails, LinkedIn, and text messages.
Klenty facilitates sales sequencing and sales outreach optimization by sharing data-driven insights. At the same time, the AI-powered writing tool provided by the platform helps users build sequences from scratch without putting in extra time and effort. Your company can access Klenty by subscribing to the Startup, Growth, Pro, or Enterprise pricing plan.
Conclusion
The best inside sales software helps your sales representatives close more deals in a remote setting. In addition to streamlining lead generation, nurturing, and conversion tasks, they facilitate multichannel customer communication and data-driven decision-making.
However, you should remember that each inside sales solution boots the productivity of salespeople in a specific way. Some of these tools are developed as customer relationship management (CRM) software, while others automate specific activities like lead generation, customer communication, or meeting scheduling.
Hence, you should shortlist inside sales software that meets the precise needs of your inside sales teams. You can further enable sales representatives to stay connected with potential customers and close more deals by implementing multiple inside sales tools. At the same time, you must control ongoing costs by choosing the right pricing plans.
This blog was originally published in Pandabloggers and is re-published here.
AI Tools for Content Marketing
As a prominent Industry 4.0 technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed the content creation process. Most content creators these days use AI content writing tools to generate content ideas and reduce content creation time. Likewise, most marketers use AI plagiarism checkers to differentiate between human-generated content and AI-generated content.
However, content creators and marketers can use AI tools for content marketing to automate various activities and gain a competitive advantage. For instance, some of these tools help them optimize content for Google Multisearch by generating relevant images. Likewise, content creators can use specific tools to generate hashtags, captions, and author bios.
We are discussing some of these AI tools for content marketing that help enterprises save time and resources by automating various primary tasks and activities.
9 Important AI Tools for Content Marketing Automation
Hubspot AI
This popular customer relationship management (CRM) platform boosts content marketing automation by featuring three AI-powered tools. The AI Blog Writer provided by Hubspot enables writers to conduct initial research and produce content by sharing topics and using prompts. Likewise, digital marketers can use the AI Email Writer to design, craft, and customize emails using email marketing templates.
At the same time, Hubspot makes it easier for them to generate SEO titles and descriptions for a web page automatically by featuring the Meta Description Generator. Digital marketers can avail of these AI tools for content writing along with the content management software – CMS Hub – provided by Hubspot.
Clickup
This premium digital marketing platform automates content marketing by providing a slew of AI-powered tools. The keyword list generator provided by Clickup helps marketers generate a comprehensive list of keywords – competitive, niche, and unique.
At the same time, marketers can use the software to generate content briefs and outlines based on the desired keywords. They can further use the content calendar templates provided by Clickup to organize and schedule content across channels – websites, blogs, social networks, and emails.
Surfer
In addition to being an AI content generator, Surfer helps marketers optimize the content for search engines by providing a set of AI-powered tools. Writers can use the AI-powered content editor provided by the software to gather relevant keywords and get optimization ideas.
They can choose and include relevant keywords in the content using important parameters like search intent, monthly search volumes, and keyword difficulty score. Additionally, the tool helps them boost content quality by performing readability and plagiarism checking.
FeedHive
FeedHive automates social media content management using AI algorithms. Digital marketers can use the AI-powered tool to boost social media posts by adding variables and dynamic content. The scheduling tool provided by the software helps them plan and schedule social media content visually.
Likewise, the social inbox provided by FeedHive makes it easier for them to engage with the target audience by tracking likes, comments, and replies. At the same time, FeedHive uses AI and data analytics to help marketers decide the posting time, generate hashtags, and boost content reach.
Copysmith
Copysmith helps digital marketers speed up short-form content creation using AI technologies. Marketers can use this AI-powered tool to accelerate the creation of a variety of short-form content – emails, landing pages, PPC ads, and product descriptions. Along with generating short-form content, Copysmith optimizes them for search engines including relevant keywords.
Also, marketers can use the software to write and organize product descriptions by importing an entire product catalog. They have the option to integrate Copysmith with several widely used e-commerce tools and platforms. Copysmith rewrites and optimizes the product descriptions instantly whenever the need arises.
Marketmuse
Marketmuse uses AI technologies to boost an important aspect of content marketing – planning and optimization. It helps marketers create and publish relevant content by conducting content audits automatically. In addition, the software uses predictive analytics to create automated content plans at page and site levels.
At the same time, Marketmuse boosts SEO campaigns by highlighting what the target audience asks and what their search intent is. The data-driven insights shared by the software make it easier for strategists to structure content by choosing topics that help beat competitors, build authority, and rank higher on SERPs.
Adobe Firefly
Google’s multisearch feature makes it essential for content marketers to include relevant images in articles and blogs. Adobe Firefly helps them help them optimize content for multi-search engines by simplifying text-to-image conversions. A marketer can use the prompt provided by the software to generate eye-catching images by entering textual content.
The prompt generates four distinct images based on the text entered by him. Hence, he can choose the image that matches the content perfectly. At the same time, he can customize and optimize the AI-generated image by changing color, lighting, style, aspect ratios, and other attributes. The marketers also have the option to include the image in blogs, articles, social media posts, and flyers.
Crayon AI
Crayon AI uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to share competitive insights with marketers. After scanning the competitive landscape, the software identifies and shares the most relevant insights with the users. Also, it uses Generative AI to help marketers understand the content published by competitors.
While making content marketing strategies, marketers can leverage competitive insights to get fresh ideas, track changes made by competitors, and evaluate content published by competitors. At the same time, Crayon makes it easier for marketers to outperform competitors by sharing best practices and benchmarks.
Descript
Most customers these days prefer watching videos and listening to podcasts to reading articles, blogs, and other textual content. Descript aims to make video recording and editing as simple as editing documents and slides by leveraging AI technologies. It enables marketers to create videos using screen capture and webcam recordings.
The platform makes it easier for digital marketers to produce high-quality videos and podcasts by providing a set of AI-powered features. Marketers can leverage these AI-powered features to convert textual content into podcasts, edit videos by making changes to the transcript, and show subjects by removing the default video background.
Conclusion
In addition to accelerating the content generation process, AI tools help marketers track the performance of content using multiple KPIs. But we must remember that each of these AI tools for content marketing has its pros and cons. Marketers must keep in mind the pros of individual AI-powered tools to boost content marketing automation and increase content marketing ROI.
Marketing Automation Tools in India
A recent report published by LinkedIn suggests that about 90% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India have already invested in marketing automation. In addition to automating routine and repetitive marketing activities, marketing automation helps them increase conversion rates by nurturing leads across marketing channels.
Leading marketing automation tools in India help marketers generate high-quality leads, nurture high-value leads, personalize customer journeys, and monitor cross-channel marketing campaigns. Also, they make the marketing process data-driven using Industry 4.0 technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data analytics.
Hence, your company or startup can control costs and gain a competitive advantage by implementing the right marketing automation tools. We are making it easier for your organization to switch from manual marketing to marketing automation by discussing some of these widely used marketing automation tools in India.
Overview of 7 Widely-Used Marketing Automation Tools in India
Hubspot
The marketing automation software provided by Hubspot is hugely popular with marketers due to its intuitive user interface (UI) and robust features. Also, businesses can boost the software seamlessly with many sales and marketing tools.
In addition to automating routine marketing tasks, the marketing automation tool enables campaign automation by building bots and customizing workflow. Marketers can use the software to convert and nurture leads by sending the right message at the right time based on specific actions and conditions.
At the same time, the software helps them score leads, follow up with leads, and trigger notifications when a lead takes specific actions. Your organization can implement Hubspot marketing automation software by choosing from two monthly payment plans – Professional and Enterprise.
Marketo Engage
Adobe has built Marketo Engage as a B2B and B2C marketing automation platform. In addition to facilitating marketing and sales alignment, the software helps your team predict, segment, and nurture leads using AI technologies. Also, marketers can engage potential customers online and offline based on customer-triggered events.
Marketo Engage leverages customers’ demographic and behavioral data to deliver the right message at the right time. In addition, it helps marketers personalize customer experiences, boost cross-channel engagement, monitor marketing campaigns, and find partnership opportunities without putting in extra time and effort.
However, the features and tools provided by Marketo Engage will vary according to your choice of pricing plan. Your company can access the software by subscribing to four distinct pricing plans – Growth, Select, Prime, and Ultimate.
Customer.io
Customer.io helps enterprises automate a crucial process like customer messaging. Marketers can use the marketing automation tool to engage customers by delivering emails, push notifications, text messages, transactional messages, one-time messages, and in-app messages to customers automatically.
At the same time, Customer.io groups and segments customers using a variety of attributes. A marketer has the option to group customers based on their personal attributes, pages viewed by them, and actions taken by them while interacting with a product.
In addition, they can perform A/B testing to send the best version of a message to customers and personalize messages based on real-time data. Your organization can implement this marketing automation tool by subscribing to the Essential, Premium, or Enterprise pricing plan.
Constant Contact
This marketing automation tool helps marketers capture new leads and nurture them by sending timely emails. Marketers can use Constant Contact to capture leads by building appealing landing pages. At the same time, the templates provided by the software help them create engaging emails without putting in extra time and effort.
The A/B testing tool provided by the software helps them compare multiple versions of an email message. In addition, Constant Contact helps marketers convert leads by sending emails early and timely. They can further build and manage email lists effortlessly using the tool provided by Constant Contact.
The recent version of Constant Contact helps enterprises find new customers by running automated social media and SMS marketing campaigns. Your company can avail of this email marketing automation solution by subscribing to the Lite, Standard, or Premium pricing plan.
ActiveCampaign
In addition to featuring customer relationship management (CRM) software, ActiveCampaign comes with marketing and email marketing automation tools. The CRM software helps marketers manage relationships and interactions with existing and potential customers without using additional tools.
At the same time, marketing automation tools provided by the platform tracks actions taken by website visitors, collect their email addresses using sign-up forms, find valuable leads by assigning scores, and nurture them by sending automated emails. In addition, marketers can track and measure campaign performance using built-in reporting and analytics tools.
The email marketing tools provided by ActiveCampaign help marketers engage customers by sending a variety of automated emails – triggered emails, targeted emails, transaction emails, and broadcast emails. Your organization can implement this marketing automation tool by choosing from four pricing plans – Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise.
Autopilot
Autopilot personalizes and automates cross-channel marketing activities. It enables marketers to capture new leads and nurture them by sending personalized messages. In addition to onboarding and educating leads, marketers can use analytics solutions to understand and visualize customer data.
Autopilot makes it easier for them to capture leads and follow up with them by providing ready-to-use templates. At the same time, the marketing team can use the software to automate routine tasks like website tracking, customer journey mapping, and data-driven marketing.
In addition, they can use an email marketing tool to segment recipients, conduct A/B testing, and send personalized emails automatically. Your team can evaluate the features and tools provided by Autopilot by starting a free trial before upgrading to a premium version.
Salesforce
The B2B marketing automation software provided by Salesforce integrates customer data collected from various channels using a CRM system. In addition, it delivers connected customer journeys across channels by facilitating lead generation and cross-channel lead nurturing.
Marketers can use the software to capture and segment leads at the point of capture. They can further score leads based on real-time data using an AI-powered lead scoring and grading tool. Salesforce makes it easier for them to identify high-value accounts and nurture them using key account insights.
Salesforce boosts marketing automation by delivering real-time sales insights based on an account’s interaction and features an account-based marketing dashboard. You can avail of the B2B marketing automation software by choosing from three pricing plans – Marketing Cloud Personalization, Marketing Cloud Engagement, and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement.
Conclusion
While switching from manual marketing to marketing automation, your firm has the option to choose from many popular marketing automation tools in India. But you should focus on implementing software that is easy to use, customize, integrate, and scale.
At the same time, you need to ensure that the tech tool automates the desired marketing activities and tasks. In addition, you should prioritize software that boosts the marketing process by leveraging intelligence technologies and data analytics.
SEO Strategies for SaaS Companies in 2024
The overcrowded Software as a Service (SaaS) space makes it challenging for companies to acquire and retain customers. As a tried-and-tested marketing strategy, search engine optimization (SEO) helps SaaS companies generate, nurture, and convert leads effectively and organically.
In addition to increasing organic website traffic, SEO makes it easier for SaaS companies to generate more leads and increase sign-ups for software demos. Your company or startup must prioritize SEO while comparing and evaluating various SaaS marketing strategies in 2024.
However, you must refine the SEO strategies for SaaS companies in 2024 by adopting the latest SEO trends and implementing several best practices. Here are some ideas or tactics you must consider to make the SaaS SEO strategy effective in increasing your firm’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2024.
10 Tactics to Boost SEO Strategies for SaaS Companies in 2024
1. Understand the Target Audience
Your SaaS SEO strategy must focus on engaging and influencing the target audience using the right content, keywords, and hashtags. Hence, you can refine the strategy only by identifying and understanding the target audience.
You can understand the target audience accurately by creating buyer personas based on real-time marketing data. The buyer persona will help you answer key questions like who wants to learn about and subscribe to your SaaS product. Also, you can know what type of content the target audience likes and consumes.
2. Identify and Address Problems
SaaS consumers use search engines to answer questions and find solutions. While conducting target audience research, you must focus on identifying the problems faced by the potential subscribers. You can identify common and important problems by analyzing the topics they search for and the search queries they use.
Your SEO strategies for SaaS companies in 2024 must focus on solving these problems by publishing relevant content. The content published by your company will rank higher on SERPs by focusing on these search queries. Also, you can increase content reach by providing solutions.
3. Know Your Competitors
In addition to understanding the target audience, your SaaS SEO strategy must focus on knowing the competitors. You can identify and shortlist top competitors based on website ranking for targeted keywords.
Additionally, you must spend adequate time on these websites to identify the SEO tactics that help competitors increase organic website traffic consistently. The competitor analysis will help you create better content and find opportunities to gain high-quality backlinks.
4. Pick and Target Relevant Keywords
While showing search results, search engines usually rank high-authoritative websites for high-competitive websites. It becomes difficult for you to increase website traffic consistently by targeting only high-competitive keywords.
Your SEO strategies for SaaS companies in 2024 should focus on targeting low-competition and niche keywords. Your strategy must focus on combining top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) and bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) keywords.
The combination will help you increase conversion rates by generating and nurturing leads more effectively. It is also important to segment relevant keywords based on current traffic, potential traffic, content cluster, and intent.
5. Publish Authoritative Content
While creating and optimizing content for SEO campaigns in 2024, your team must implement Google’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) guidelines. The guidelines require content creators to answer three important questions – who, how, and why.
They can create authoritative and people-first content by understanding who is writing the content, how is he creating the content, and why is he creating the content. The clarity will help them produce authoritative content that is relevant for both search engines and searchers.
6. Implement On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO
While making SEO strategies for SaaS companies in 2024, you must combine on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tactics. On-page SEO tactics will optimize the website for both search engines and searchers, while technical SEO tactics will ensure that search engines can crawl the website seamlessly.
At the same time, off-page SEO techniques will boost the website’s authority by gaining high-quality backlinks. Additionally, you must boost these SEO techniques by identifying and fixing all issues affecting your website’s user experience and search performance.
7. Leverage Key Switch Moments
Your SaaS SEO strategy must target customers who want to switch from on-premise software to cloud-based solutions. Additionally, it should target customers who are looking for better alternatives to existing SaaS products.
The search queries used by this category of customers include the term “alternatives” after the name of the existing SaaS product. For instance, a customer interested in switching from a SaaS product called XYZ uses the search query XYZ alternatives.
You can divert such subscribers to your website by capturing key switch moments proactively. Your SEO strategy for 2024 must capture the switch moments by finding competitors from online product listings and review sites.
8. Run Backlink Outreach Campaigns
SaaS companies find it challenging to acquire high-quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites. They overcome this challenge by running outreach campaigns. Many SaaS companies these days partner with digital marketers and link builders to provide link juice to their websites.
Digital marketers find link-building opportunities by connecting with webmasters of niche websites and blogs. They request the webmaster to insert links in articles or blogs with higher search engine rankings.
Also, they gain high-quality backlinks by offering the webmaster something in exchange. Your SaaS SEO strategy should consider running outreach campaigns to boost your website’s authority and search performance consistently.
9. Automate Routine SEO Tasks
Your SEO strategies for SaaS companies in 2024 must save time and costs through automation. Many SEO tools help you automate routine tasks like keyword research, competitor analysis, and content audit.
Also, they make it easier to evaluate the performance of SEO campaigns using key metrics like keyword ranking, website visitors, and backlinks. However, your SaaS SEO strategy for 2024 must control costs by prioritizing free tools.
10. Monitor and Measure ROI
Your SaaS company can accomplish multiple goals using SEO as an alternative to paid marketing strategies. However, your company has to invest funds to create content and implement SEO tactics. Hence, you must measure ROI by comparing costs and revenue.
While making SEO strategies for SEO companies, you must set clear goals like increasing website traffic, keyword ranking, and conversion rates. Additionally, you should define key metrics for measuring the performance of SEO campaigns.
The goals and performance metrics will help you measure SaaS SEO ROI accurately. Also, you can monitor these metrics to know what is working and what is not working.
Conclusion
Your SaaS company needs a robust SEO strategy to drive lead generation, nurturing, and conversion in 2024. Your SaaS SEO strategy must focus on optimizing the website’s structure, content, and user experience for both search engines and searchers.
Also, it must increase website traffic and engage website visitors by making content creation, optimization, and promotion an ongoing process. However, you need to ensure that SEO strategies for SaaS companies in 2024 remain flexible enough to accommodate search engine algorithm updates and emerging SEO trends.
Best B2B Email Marketing Software
B2B companies generate, nurture, and convert leads using various strategies. They deliver relevant content at different stages in the B2B buyer’s journey using multiple communication channels, including emails. They launch email marketing campaigns and expand their email list regularly.
The best B2B email marketing software helps them launch, manage, and monitor multiple campaigns without escalating costs. In addition to simplifying email creation, editing, and customization, the special-purpose tech solutions enable users to send the right marketing email to the right customer at the right time.
Some of these email marketing solutions are easier to use than others. Likewise, some email marketing tools require B2B companies to spend more. We are making it easier for your company to pick the best B2B email marketing software by doing cost-and-benefit analysis.
Shortlisting and Comparing the Best B2B Email Marketing Software
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign speeds up email creation and customization by featuring a drag-and-drop editor and providing new-age templates. Also, it facilitates workflow automation by predicting the next step. Additionally, the versatile email marketing tool comes with a built-in customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Marketers can leverage the CRM to personalize marketing emails and align them to the customer journey. They can boost the software by integrating it with over 900 tools and platforms, including MS Word, Facebook, and WordPress.
However, the additional and advanced features make ActiveCampaign more complex than other email marketing platforms. Furthermore, your company cannot use the software by leveraging a free plan. You still have the option to evaluate ActiveCampaign by requesting a free trial.
GetResponse
In addition to providing a drag-and-drop email creator and templates, GetResponse features an AI-powered email generator. These options help users create and optimize emails by combining human and artificial intelligence.
The software marketing tool boosts campaigns by facilitating A/B testing and supporting send time optimizations. At the same time, the visual editor provided by the software helps marketers build and visualize the B2B customer journey.
However, your company can use the software only by subscribing to one of the paid plans. Also, it has to incur additional expenses to automate multiple marketing campaigns. Several users complain that GetResponse is less effective than other email marketing solutions in increasing email delivery rates.
Brevo
Your business can use Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) to automate email marketing campaigns by choosing from free and paid plans. Brevo simplifies email design by providing a template gallery and an image editing tool.
It further allows marketers to send emails to all customers or a specific segment of customers. Also, they can leverage the best time feature to send emails to each customer at the best time. Brevo helps users boost B2B email marketing campaigns by tracking and analyzing the performance of each email.
However, many marketers feel that Brevo is not as user-friendly and fast as other best B2B email marketing software. Also, email delivery rates do not remain consistent across email marketing campaigns.
HubSpot
HubSpot allows you to design and customize marketing emails using either human intelligence or artificial intelligence. Your marketers can craft marketing emails using the goal-based templates provided by the software.
Also, they can personalize emails by gathering contact information from various sources. At the same time, they can automate email creation using the software’s AI content writing features. HubSpot helps them to send the best version of each email by performing A/B testing.
However, marketers complain that the software provides only basic email templates. Your company cannot nurture and convert leads using the free tools provided by HubSpot. You have to upgrade to a premium plan to manage email marketing campaigns more efficiently.
MailerLite
MailerLite simplifies email design and customization by featuring an AI-powered drag-and-drop editor. Marketers can use the editor to craft personalized text emails and design custom newsletters. At the same time, they can use the software to send personalized and triggered emails to B2B customers at the right time.
The A/B testing tool provided by MailerLite helps them choose and send the best version of marketing emails. Also, MailerLite scores over widely used email marketing solutions in the category of email delivery rate. However, the quality of customer support varies across pricing plans. Your company has to opt for a premium plan to access ready-to-use email templates and advanced features.
Zoho
You can consider Zoho to automate email marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) simultaneously. The drag-and-drop editor provided by the software helps your team customize marketing emails by changing content, images, and call to action (CTA).
Also, they can choose the best versions of an email by conducting A/B testing. Zoho makes it easier for your company to send marketing emails to customers across regions by supporting over 60 languages. Also, you can use the customizable dashboards provided by the email marketing tool to analyze campaign performance using various metrics.
Zoho offers customer support in multiple languages. However, it requires customers to use online customer service help desk software. The help desk increases the time required for solving issues. Also, marketers find Zoho to be more complex than other best email marketing software.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact helps your company run full-stack email marketing campaigns. You can use the AI content generator provided by the software to craft emails simply by entering relevant keywords. At the same time, you can customize marketing emails using templates and a drag-and-drop editor.
The best B2B email marketing software facilitates customer connectivity by helping you send the right message at the right time. Also, you can use the dashboard provided by Constant Contact to measure campaign performance by generating reports on demand.
Constant Contact delivers a higher email open rate than other email marketing tools. But your company has to spend more to leverage the software fully. Also, you may find it challenging to cancel the subscription on demand.
Omnisend
Omnisend caters to the communication and marketing needs of B2B e-commerce companies. It helps your company build and strengthen customer relationships by sending emails and text messages. You can access a comprehensive template library to craft professional emails customized for individual campaigns and stores.
Also, you divide customers into multiple segments to blast marketing emails without impacting their experiences. The A/B testing tool provided by the software helps you send the perfect emails to customers. At the same time, Omnisend boosts campaign performance by resending unopened emails to subscribers.
However, you have to choose one of the premium editions of Omnisend to send marketing emails to a large number of customers. Also, the dashboard provided by the software does not enable you to track subscribers’ geographic locations. Omnisend currently delivers a lower email open rate than other popular B2B email marketing tools.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp facilitates email marketing automation by providing robust tools and using intelligence technologies. Your team can use the drag-and-drop editor provided by the software to craft and customize marketing emails quickly.
At the same time, they can optimize the emails using suggestions made by software using AI algorithms. The dashboard provided by Mailchimp helps you analyze campaign performance as well as gather information about subscribers.
You can leverage prebuilt automation to send automated email messages to each customer according to his action and stage in the B2B buyer journey. However, Mailchimp is much more expensive than other B2B email marketing solutions. Your company has to pay additional charges to unsubscribe.
Conclusion
B2B email marketing solutions help your company reduce the time and cost required to generate, nurture, and convert leads. However, widely used email marketing tools differ in several aspects, including features and pricing. Hence, you can choose the best B2B email marketing software only by evaluating their pros and cons.
It is always important to opt for email marketing software that helps you send personalized emails to corporate customers at the right time. Also, you should prioritize software that boosts email marketing automation using Industry 4.0 technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This article was originally published by me on this site and has been republished here on 11 October 2023.
Best Free Blogging Sites
As a tried-and-tested digital marketing strategy, blogging helps companies and startups accomplish multiple goals – increase website traffic, generate leads, drive sales conversions, and foster customer relationships. At the same time, blogging creates opportunities for individual content creators to earn $0.01 – $0.25 per page view.
In addition to publishing blog posts regularly, enterprises and individuals monetize their blogs in several ways. But can earn recurring income by creating several types of blogs. However, you cannot create, publish, manage, and monetize blogs effectively using specialized software and services.
Blogging sites make it easier for you to earn recurring income by sharing your thoughts or ideas with the target audience by publishing blogs. They help you set up blogging websites by providing a variety of themes, plugins, and add-ons.
Also, they make it easier for you to optimize blogs for search engines and promote blogs on social networking platforms. You can create and run blogs using several widely-used blogging sites. But you can control costs and increase blogging ROI by opting for one of the best free blogging sites.
Overview of 16 Best Free Blogging Sites for Beginner Bloggers
1. WordPress
At present, WordPress is used by 63.2% of websites powered by content management systems. In addition to being an open-source blogging platform, WordPress allows users to choose from over 1000 themes and 55000 plugins.
The themes and plugins help you design and customize the blog site without writing longer lines of code. At the same time, you can use specific WordPress features and plugins to optimize the content for search engines.
The WYSIWYG editor provided by the blogging platform enables you to create, update, and modify content without writing any code. Also, you can monetize the blogs without any restrictions. But you have to invest in a web hosting plan to connect your blog site to the internet.
2. Wix
Wix is currently popular as a website-building software. However, it was initially launched as a blogging platform. It helps users create, modify, and optimize content by providing a WYSIWYG editor. At the same time, users can avoid writing lengthy code by choosing from over 900 free and customizable website templates.
Wix makes it easier for beginners to set up blog sites by providing free storage and bandwidth. Hence, you can opt for Wix to start a blog without putting in extra time and effort. However, the free blogging site requires you to display the Wix brand on the website. Also, it does not allow you to run third-party ads on the website. Hence, you will find it challenging to monetize the blogs developed using Wix.
3. Weebly
Weebly is a premium website-building tool. The free edition of the platform helps you create blogs using a drag-and-drop solution. You can use the WYSIWYG editor to create and optimize content in minutes. Also, you can change the look and feel of your blog site regularly by changing themes. Weebly enables users to add e-commerce functionalities to the website on demand.
But Weebly requires you to show its branding and ads on the website. You have to upgrade to a premium version of the blogging site to connect the blog to a custom domain. Often beginners experiment with Weebly to acquire and hone blogging skills. However, they opt for Weebly alternatives to monetize and customize the blog.
4. Medium
Unlike other best free blogging sites, Medium does not help users set up personal blog sites. However, content creators can leverage Medium as an online community to share their ideas and views by posting blogs regularly. The members of the community make the content popular by sharing and reposting it on other platforms.
Also, many bloggers popularize their content by republishing them on Medium. In addition to being a free-to-use and easy-to-learn platform, Medium helps bloggers reach out to an existing audience. However, bloggers lack the option to customize and monetize their blog posts. Many bloggers opt for Medium as an alternative to guest posting.
5. Drupal
Drupal is an open-source content management system (CMS). The free-to-use platform helps users save the time and resources required to build websites and blogs. Drupal popularizes blogs by making the content accessible on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
Also, the Drupal community helps bloggers resolve clear doubts and solve issues in a short amount of time. However, bloggers find it challenging to customize Drupal blogs due to limited customization modules. Also, bloggers proficient in web technologies find it easier to leverage Drupal as a blogging site.
6. Google Blogger
Many seasoned bloggers consider this popular free blogging platform outdated. But, the blogging platform supported by Google is still popular with many beginner and seasoned bloggers. Blogger is one of the beginner-friendly blogging sites. It simplifies the creation of new blog sites by providing ready-to-use templates.
Unlike other best free blogging sites, Blogger makes it easier for content creators to monetize their blogs using Google AdSense. However, it does not provide the options and tools required by a user to customize his blogs. Many bloggers find the interface provided by Bloggers to be inferior to the interfaces provided by modern blogging platforms.
7. Ghost
Ghost is a commercial blogging platform. But you can use the self-hosted version of Ghost without subscribing to any pricing plans. Ghost was developed as an easier-to-use alternative to WordPress. It comes with features and tools to make it easier for bloggers to create, publish, and monetize their content.
Many bloggers opt for Ghost to create content in a clean space. However, they find it challenging to customize blogs due to limited customization options. Also, they find it challenging to host their blog sites as Ghost is written in JavaScript. Bloggers have to pay additional fees to run independent blog sites by getting domain names.
8. Webador
Webador is commercial website-building software that is hugely popular with small businesses. Individuals and hobbyists can use the free edition of Webador to set up in less than 30 minutes. They can set up a website without writing code using customizable templates and a drag-and-drop editor.
Also, they can link the website to a .com domain after the development process. Webador boosts the website’s user experience and search engine performance by adopting responsive web design. Bloggers can monitor the website’s performance regularly by generating custom reports.
But they have to upgrade to a paid edition of Webador to avail of additional features like add-free websites, multi-language websites, customizable forms, and Google Analytics integration. But beginners can use the free edition of the platform to speed up blog site development.
9. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a hugely popular business-focused media platform. Professionals access the platform regularly to expand their professional network and find job opportunities. The massive popularity of LinkedIn with entrepreneurs and working professionals creates opportunities for bloggers to publish and promote content.
Many bloggers even prefer LinkedIn as the best free blogging site to reach out to B2B customers and influence their purchase decisions. However, LinkedIn does not provide the features and tools required by a blogger to set up independent blog sites. Also, bloggers can leverage LinkedIn fully only by publishing original and insightful blog posts.
10. Penzu
Penzu helps writers and content creators maintain customized online journals. Over 2 million writers currently leverage Penzu as an alternative to other free blogging sites. They use the mobile version of Penzu to record ideas, experiences, and activities on the go.
The smart search option provided by the site helps them find relevant journals instantly. Also, the platform safeguards the content and journals using advanced encryption technologies and double password protection. Hence, writers leverage Penzu to create journals that can be extended to blogs in the future.
11. Jimdo
Jimdo is a premium website-building tool. Bloggers can use the Play edition of the software to build websites and online stores free of cost. The built-in design features of Jimdo enable users to customize websites by adding their images and logos. Jimdo makes the website look good on both computers and mobile devices.
Also, bloggers can connect the blog directly to their Google, Facebook, and Instagram profiles. But they have to upgrade to a premium version of Jimdo to use a free domain, increase the number of web pages, access advanced SEO tools, and provide ad-free experiences.
12. Joomla
Joomla is an open-source CMS supported by a large developer community. The flexible interface provided by the CMS helps users set up a blog site without putting in extra time and effort. A blogger can customize the website by using a wide variety of templates and extensions.
Also, he can customize web pages by choosing his preferred font, color, background, and emotions. Joomla makes it easier for him to increase website traffic by optimizing the blog site for mobile devices and search engines.
However, he has to purchase a domain name and hosting services to host individual blog sites. Also, beginners can leverage Joomla as one of the best free blogging sites only when they are familiar with commonly used web technologies.
13. SITE123
SITE123 makes it easier for content creators to set up a variety of websites. Bloggers can leverage the free website-building tool to develop a simple blog site in a short amount of time. The design templates provided by the platform enable them to avoid writing longer lines of code.
SITE123 scores over other free blogging sites in the category of Multilanguage content management. It boosts the blog site’s user experience by adopting responsive web design. Also, it helps users divert organic traffic to the blog site by providing SEO tools. Many bloggers opt for SITE123 to set up a blog site in a straightforward way.
14. Postach.io
Evernote is used widely by bloggers to capture ideas on the go. The popular note-taking application enables content creators to create notes by combining text, images, and audio. Postach.io creates opportunities for writers to convert their Evernote Notebook into a blog site.
A user can use Postach.io to set up a blog site for free simply by connecting it with the Evernote application. Also, he can add new posts regularly from the note-taking app. Bloggers also have the option to use custom domains and share blog posts on popular social networking platforms.
15. Write.as
Write.as is a premium content writing and publishing platform. Bloggers can use the free edition of the platform to set up a blog site for free. They can create and publish content quickly using the options provided by the site. Also, they can promote blog posts by sharing URLs using emails, blogs, and social networking platforms.
Write.as keeps readers engaged by not distracting them by sending likes, comments, and other notifications. However, the free edition of the site provides users with a plain text editor and requires them to show Write.as branding. Bloggers have to upgrade to paid editions of the platform to use custom themes and get photo-hosting facilities.
16. Jekyll
Unlike other widely used blogging sites, Jekyll helps users convert plain text documents into static websites. The open-source site generator is hugely popular with bloggers who write blogs using popular word processing tools like Microsoft Word.
In addition to creating informational websites, writers can use Jekyll to deploy the websites for free using GitHub. Also, writers can migrate their existing blogs to Jekyll effortlessly. But Jekyll processes templates using a templating language called Liquid. Beginners can leverage Jekyll to save the time and effort required to set up a new blog site.
Conclusion
These best free blogging sites help you create and run blog sites without incurring upfront and ongoing costs. Some of these popular blogging sites are available as open-source software. At the same time, you have the option to choose from the free editions of several commercial blogging sites.
But you should remember that the best free blogging platforms differ from each other in many aspects, including built-in features, the number of themes and plugins, and community strength. Hence, you must compare these best free blogging sites elaborately to choose the platform that meets your short-term and long-term needs.